Business Standard

Tuesday, December 24, 2024 | 04:35 AM ISTEN Hindi

Notification Icon
userprofile IconSearch

Japan readies hi-tech global rainfall satellite

Image

AFP Tokyo
Japan will launch its latest rocket early tomorrow morning, carrying a hi-tech satellite to monitor global rainfall and help meteorologists forecast big storms.

The H-IIA rocket will blast off from a southern Japanese island at 3:37 am tomorrow, (1837 GMT today) with the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) core observatory aboard, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said.

The satellite, jointly developed by Japan and the United States, is designed to collect data from several other satellites in orbit and add that to its own measurements to build up a detailed picture of precipitation around the planet.

Weather forecasters say that with a more detailed and complete map of rain they will be better able to predict extreme events such as typhoons and floods.
 

Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who is now aboard the International Space Station along with NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Russia's Mikhail Tyurin, told his 74,000 Twitter followers he was hoping for a smooth launch.

"From the ISS, I wish for the success of the launch," he wrote.

Don't miss the most important news and views of the day. Get them on our Telegram channel

First Published: Feb 28 2014 | 5:00 AM IST

Explore News